Kingdom Hearts: Inside Out
by KHfreak415
Summary: Riku's been acting increasingly aggressive lately, so Sora and King Mickey decide to enter his mind to investigate. There, they find themselves in a strange new world unlike any they've seen before, and are tasked with rescuing and teaming up with Riku's various Emotions to destroy the darkness controlling Riku once and for all.
1. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

* * *

"Huahhh!" Riku bellowed as he dashed forward. The Way to the Dawn swung swiftly and clashed against the Kingdom Key.

"Ergh…Riku, what's the matter with you?" Sora demanded, struggling under the weight of Riku's swing. Sora shoved away Riku's keyblade and backflipped out of range. "Knock it off!"

Riku had been acting strangely for several days now. He seemed to have grown more irritable by the day. It was finally today, a short walk across the island, that set him off, attacking Sora out of the blue. No matter how badly he wanted to believe his best friend was stronger now with all they'd been through, the man standing in front of him seemed to contradict that. He was in such a blind fury right now, no words could even form from his tongue.

Riku pulled back his weapon, filled it with energy, and shot out three homing fireballs. Sora braced his key blade to block, waiting to take the force of the flames only for three boulders of ice to neutralize the attack instead. A small figure spun in the air to land in front of Sora. "Huh? Mick-…Your Majesty!" The enraged Riku lunged and swiped at the mouse king in rapid succession, but King Mickey's small stature proved too agile to hit, ducking and flipping between swings.

"Riku! You gotta snap outta this!" Mickey implored, locking blades, but Riku remained mute. "Sora, why can't he respond?"

"I don't know," Sora replied, jumping back into the fight. "I can't get anything through to him! He just attacked out of nowhere. Do you think the darkness is back?" Both key blade heroes teamed up against their opponent, yet Riku managed to hold them both off on his own.

"Wait, Sora, look!" Mickey declared during a moment of pause. He pointed a single gloved finger toward Riku's eyes. A strange red haze shrouded the upper portion of his head. "I think I know what has to be done. Forgive us, Riku," the King said before flipping over him, knocking the butt of his key blade into his forehead and knocking him unconscious. Riku collapsed to the ground lifeless, leaving Sora and Mickey standing over him.

"Do you know…how to help him?" Sora knelt down and hovered his weapon over Riku's body. "I'm not detecting any darkness in his heart."

"That's because it's not in his heart. It's in there," the King replied.

"In…his head?"

"His mind. Lots'a stuff can affect our hearts, but there are fewer forces that can take over our minds."

"So do we have to get in there and help him out?" Mickey's expression turned somber.

"I hate to admit that I don't have any experience in this field. If we head in there, I have no clue what we'll find in there…" Sora placed his hand on his hips and a smile on his face.

"C'mon, Your Majesty. I've had lots of adventures. I can handle myself." Mickey nodded.

"Right, but I'm comin' with you!"

Sora grinned. "It's about time we had our own adventure!" Both wielders crossed their key blades and tapped Riku's forehead. As usual, a small pinprick of light emitted from the tips, steadily growing brighter and brighter until it entirely filled their vision.


	2. Anger

_**Anger**_

* * *

"Sora? Sora! Are you there?" Sora could faintly hear Mickey's voice through the blinding light.

"Your Majesty?" Sora answered, holding his arms out front to guide him through the light. "I can't see any…" The light dimmed down until it turned completely to black. Sora stared into the darkness worriedly until he realized he was only looking at the back of his eyelids. He opened his eyes, laying on his back. "Mickey?" The mouse king lay next to him, eyes shut. Sora stood himself up and knelt down to the King. "Mickey, wake up."

"Huh?" The mouse king shot up, ready for action. "Oh, Sora. It's only you."

"Well, now that we're alright…is this Riku's mind?" They both examined their surroundings. The room they were in had walls of wooden paneling that curved around them, dipping in and out in a surreal fashion. Staircases and railings were decorated with flourishes and elegance, similar to the Old Mansion in Twilight Town. The walls also had several shelves embedded inside, filled with volumes and glowing crimson orbs. What appeared to be large windows sat on three of the walls, but were obscured by steel plates. The entire room seemed to curve downward to the main focus, a pulsing, purple console of buttons, switches, and levers with a large screen directly in front. The screen was black at the moment, but off to the side of the console were two gray thrones and a couch all resemblant of the Organization's stronghold.

"How interesting," Mickey exclaimed in awe. "I never woulda guessed it'd look anything like this!" While distracted, a large volume slammed into the back of Sora's head.

"AH! Hey!" Sora quickly spun around as another volume flew out from behind the railing of the second floor, pegging him again. He summoned his keyblade. "Cut that out! Don't make me come up there!"

 _ **"You wanna piece of this?!"**_ A small red figure dashed down the stairs and headed straight for Sora, fists flailing. It began to punch at Sora's knees before the boy picked the creature up. **"Put me down! I'll finish you, you good-for-nothing villains!"** The figure was short and cube-shaped, wearing a white shirt, brown pants, and a tie around his neck. Looking closer, he seemed to be entirely composed of tiny scarlet particles. Staring it in the eyes, Sora felt a rage burning inside it.

"Who are you?"

 **"Why I oughta—!"**

"Sora," Mickey said, tugging at his shirt, "maybe you oughta set him down."

"Oh, right, sorry about that." The figure, back on the ground, stared at Mickey.

"Hang on, that voice…" The figure picked up one of the books it'd thrown at Sora and skimmed the pages, settling on one with pictures of the two of them. "You're Mickey and Sora, aren't ya? Heroes of the Keyblade and whatnot?"

"Yup, that's us!" Sora confirmed. The figure sighed in relief.

"Boy, am I glad to see you two! You've got quite a reputation with us, you know."

"Us?" Mickey inquired.

"Right, sorry. I'm Anger…Like, literally Anger. When the big guy gets mad, that's me at work," Anger explained.

"Mad?" Sora interrupted. "So then, you're the reason Riku's been acting so strangely!" Anger shifted uncomfortably.

"Sorry, kid, but it's a bigger story than that." Anger walked over to the wall of orbs. "I'd better show you how it all works up here. These are memories. Whenever you experience something, it's captured into one of these balls and stored for future remembering." Anger pulled a lever, causing the orbs to cycle through one another, through chutes located under the floor and finally being sucked up a tube in the center. As more memories cycled through, different colors revealed themselves such as purple, blue, green, and rarely yellow. Once all the memories had been sucked away, a new red orb spat out from a hole in the wall. Anger grabbed the memory and placed it in the center of the room. The memory hovered as a light shone through, displaying the memory inside on the blank screen. A woman adorned in green and black appeared.

"Maleficent!" Sora and Mickey both exclaimed at once.

"This one happens to be moments before the big guy accepted the lady's offer to join the darkness a long time ago," Anger explained. On screen, the three watched as Maleficent performed magic, summoning tendrils of darkness from the ground to wrap around Riku's body. The memory cut off without warning, the orb falling back in Anger's hands. "The rest of that scene is where things got troublesome. Apparently the memory associated with the moment of Riku's corruption managed to get corrupted as well and had darkness slipped inside without our knowledge. The darkness of that memory has been growing and growing for all this time until it just recently surfaced." Anger returned the memory to the shelf. "All these creepy punks showed up and screwed up the console. Whichever one of us is in control at any given moment, that's how the big guy feels."

"This thing?" Sora stood in front of the console. "Well, can't we fix it from here?" Sora asked stupidly, tapping random buttons and switches to no response.

 _"If we could,"_ Anger began through gritted teeth, the top of his head beginning to seethe, _"don't you think I woulda **done it by now?!**_ **You** can't do a thing, it only responds to Emotions." He walked over and shoved Sora out of the way. "The darkness crept inside the console," Anger further explained. "See these black marks creeping up from the bottom? Once the console turns entirely black, the big guy'll be completely gone in the head. I'm sure with the others, we could figure out how to stop it, but until then, I'm stuck here at the console…so unfortunately all your friend can do is feel angry."

Mickey spoke up. "You keep mentioning 'we' and the others?"

"Yeah, the other Emotions. There's five of us altogether: me, Joy, Disgust, Fear, and Sadness. Everybody's got 'em, it's just the mixture of personalities that makes everyone's thoughts distinct."

"Where are they?"

"The punks out of the darkness, they came up here at Headquarters, and snatched the four of them up. I had just enough time to keep them off of me and activate lockdown," Anger answered, motioning to the steel reinforcements around the windows.

Sora and Mickey huddled together. "Do you think if we helped the other Emotions get back here, they'll be able to save Riku?" Sora asked.

"It looks like the only lead we've got…I say we do it." The two turned back to Anger.

"Hey, Anger. We can go find the other Emotions for you if it'll save Riku."

Anger headed up to the second floor and came back down, placing five small discs in Sora's palm. "Alright. Give one of these to each of them. If they press the button, it'll teleport them back here. We had to invent these after an…incident a few years ago. They're still having to clean up the mess Joy and Sadness caused…There's one for you, too, if you both hold on at the same time." Sora stuffed them in his pocket and nodded.

"Thanks. We'll be back in no time." He turned around ready to head out before turning back to Anger. "Um, you wouldn't happen to know where it is we're going, do you?"

The small red being ran back up to the second floor and used his weight to pull down a lever fixed to the wall. The steel reinforcements slid up from the windows, finally giving them a view to the outside. Faces pressed against the glass, Sora and the King gasped at the seemingly endless landscape. They saw the Headquarters hovered over an enormous chasm in the middle of the landscape with several floating islands on the edge. Sora could see each of them had some kind of theme: one had tropical trees and waterfalls reminiscent of Destiny Islands, another had ornate pillars and statues, and a third had industrial-looking buildings and structures.

Anger pointed out towards two of them. "Before I had to lockdown, I watched Disgust and Fear being flown towards those two: Keyblade Island and Friendship Island. Figure the creatures want to affect his two most important Islands of Personality first. No idea where the other two are," the Emotion finally answered. A large tube opened up from the wall. "Whenever you're ready, just head on down through that tube. Make sure you're truly ready, 'cause I'm putting this place back on lockdown once you leave." Mickey and Sora gave each other a nod before diving headfirst into the expanse of Riku's mind.


	3. Disgust

**Note: Now that the movie was released, I did go back and revise just a few details from the last chapter. Update yourself if you haven't already.**

* * *

 _ **Disgust**_

* * *

Unfortunately, the tube through which Sora and the King were sliding was transparent, allowing them a sickening view of the bottomless chasm beneath them as they slid. Down and down they sped until at last they were deposited in a heap on the edge of the chasm. The "ground" on which they sat was speckled with cobblestones and colored with various pale, blended colors. Behind them stood rows upon rows of enormous curved shelves, weaving in and out among themselves and completely filled with thousands of colored orbs. Sora couldn't imagine how difficult it would be to navigate the enormous maze-like expanse of memory shelves. However, in front of them stood the first of the massive floating islands. Sora helped Mickey up on his feet and strode up to the island's entrance.

"Which 'Island of Personality' is this one?" he wondered aloud. The floor of the island transitioned from colorful cobblestones to dry barren land covered in a thin layer of sand. Crags of brown rock jutted up from random areas, varying in size. Dozens of broken and rusted Keyblade handles stuck up from the ground as well. Despite the initial dullness, large, contrasting rings of gold fit over some of the crags and connected to other rings with golden chains. The back of a large palace adorned in gold lining faced them. Mickey joined Sora's side.

"I'd bet this is Keyblade Island. I recognize this landscape…" he answered. "I lost some pretty good friends on that land."

The King headed down a path among the crags and Keyblade debris, forged no doubt by the dark creatures. "Man," Sora began after a few minutes of silence trekking through the barren wasteland, "I wouldn't have expected a 'Keyblade Island' to look so desolate…"

"This place has a lot of history with Keyblade wielders," Mickey responded. "I'm not surprised you haven't been informed. It sure was a tragedy, this place. There used to be a lotta wielders back then. Loads of warriors, teaching their own students, learning from their own masters. But then there was a war, see, a war over who should own Kingdom Hearts…Keyblade wielding nearly went extinct. Xehanort, Yen Sid…they were some of the only ones left."

They finally came upon a courtyard in front of the steps to the palace entrance. The terrain returned to weathered cobblestones with patches of unkempt grass sprouting between stones. A single Keyblade stood upright pierced into the center, a white cape knotted around it. It reminded Sora of a kind of tribute. They had traversed halfway up the steps to the palace doors when a black fog flew out from a shattered window. The swarm swirled closer and closer to the ground before materializing into four distinct creatures. Like Anger, the beasts were formed of agitated particles and glowing red eyes. Unlike Anger, they were shaped like the familiar Neoshadow, bouncing on the tips of their feet poised for attack.

"Heartless!"

"In here?"

"These musta been the creatures Anger said were pourin' out of that corrupted memory!"

The duo brandished their signature weapons in defense. Sora swung downwards onto the first Heartless's head, but when he tried to thrust, it leapt on top of his Keyblade and scratched at his face. Mickey, meanwhile, was forced into fending off two. As they both tried to swipe at the King, Mickey spun in the air and pierced one through the head. It dissolved into the usual Heartless dust as he performed a Blizzard spell to freeze its partner in place. Sora pulled in the remaining two with a strategic Magnet and Stop combo. He began to knock his Keyblade across their bodies multiple times as they hung in the air, dissolving them too once time had restarted. Finally, Mickey lit the edge of his weapon on fire as he slammed through the frozen Neoshadow, shattering it into icy shards. Sora and the King gave each other a respectful nod when they suddenly heard a feminine voice from the other side of the doors.

"Hell-oooooo? Whoever that is, are you finished fighting? Can you just come get me already?"

With their combined strength, they managed to push the heavy doors open, leading into a great hall. Colorful light danced across the floor, spilling in from several stain glass windows. On the other end of the vast room sat three ornate, golden thrones, and on the middle one sat a black cage forged from the same agitated energy as the Heartless.

They heard an exasperated sigh. "Are you two just gonna stand there? Because I really don't want to be in here any longer than I have to..."

Sora and Mickey approached the cage from which the voice emanated from. Inside was...well, a green woman, only slightly taller than Anger. Everything from her skin to her hair to her dress were various shades of green, with the exceptions being her orchid pink lipstick, ascot, and ballet flats. Her forest green hair fell to her shoulders and curled upwards at the ends, and four comically long eyelashes flourished from each of her eyelids. A mint green belt wrapped around her waist with a D adorned at the center. Her neutral face appeared to be a judging scowl and staring into her eyes seemed to leave a bad taste in Sora's mouth.

"Seriously," she said, giving off the impression of a diva, "can you two get me out of this cage already? You can see what its made of, I don't want to be touching Heartless guts!"

"Sure thing," the King replied. "Sora? How do ya suppose we-"

"Um, Your Majesty?" Sora muttered, staring back at the palace entrance. Despite having just defeated the Heartless, dark streams of fog had returned into the air, seeping from the remnant dust of the fallen Heartless. The fog once again poured itself into the shapes of three Neoshadows. "Just a second, uh...I'm guessing you're Disgust?" Sora said.

"Duh. What'd you think the D is for? Delight?" Disgust retorted impatiently.

Sora ran in to face one only to duck and swing around it at the last moment. With the Heartless's back to him, he swiped down across it and thrust the Kingdom Key through its chest. A blow to the head from King Mickey disintegrated it. Mickey shot out a fireball towards another while Sora threw his Keyblade out with a Strike Raid. The spinning Keyblade ricocheted off both Neoshadows before returning to his hands. It did the trick since it weakened one enough for Mickey's fireball to destroy one. Finally, the King summoned a Thunder spell to eliminate the final one.

"There, that oughta do the trick," Mickey confirmed. He and Sora turned back to the caged emotion.

"Maybe if I just..." Sora tried destroying it with his Keyblade. Disgust shut her eyes and covered her head in expectation, but the weapon only rebounded off the solidly packed particles, causing Sora to stagger backwards.

"Nice going," Disgust taunted sarcastically. "That tooooootally worked."

Mickey and Sora put their heads together.

"What if we just use the Keyblade to tap it?" Mickey suggested.

"I thought that only worked with chests," Sora responded.

"Guys?" Disgust interrupted.

"If there's a keyhole on this thing, we could..."

"Maybe I can pry the bars open?"

"Gu-uys."

"What if we just brought the cage back with us?"

"But this stuff doesn't belong in Riku's head. We gotta find **some** way to-"

"GUYS!" Disgust's snapping fingers brought their focus back. She pointed behind them. Once again, the three pools of Heartless dust swirled back into the air.

Sora groaned. "Again with this?"

However, this time, the black fog swarmed entirely around the cage trapping Disgust. One of the dust clouds formed the silhouette of two muscular arms. Another formed the silhouette of two crouched legs. The last became a scraggly head and torso, Disgust at the center. A sickly green aura seemed to bind everything together. "Ohhhh, Idon'twanttobeinhere Idon'twanttobeinhere Idon'twanttobeinhere," Disgust muttered repeatedly, trying to compose herself.

"How do we fight if it will just come back to life again?" Sora asked, pulling a defensive stance.

"Forget about that," Mickey reassured him. "Our first priority is to destroy it so we can get Disgust outta here."

"Right."

The Heartless giant slammed a fist at the ground, forcing Sora and Mickey to jump out of its way to opposite sides. While Sora tried shooting out some Homing Firagas, the King leapt onto the beast's arm and climbed his way up to its head. Fortunately, the Homing Firagas found their target and had blasted it right in the chest. Unluckily, Disgust had been caught in the blast zone. "Would you be careful with those! I'm still in here, you know!" she shouted down at him. Sora rolled his eyes and made his way behind the boss. Mickey swung his weapon back and forth, knocking it in the skull repeatedly before being swatted away by a large clawed hand. "Mickey!" Sora exclaimed. In a flash, he surrounded the mouse in reflective barrier just before hitting the ground, causing him to land unharmed. As Sora bashed away at the right foot, the Heartless raised its left and with a stomp, blasted outwards a shockwave that crashed into and disoriented Sora. As the giant raised its foot up once more, Sora instead cast a Blizzard spell, trapping its foot in a glacial sphere. This caused the Heartless to lose its balance and fall sprawled across the large chamber. Once the King had rejoined Sora's side, the two combined attacks and caused its body to scatter back into dust. Luckily, this too had dematerialized Disgust's confines.

"Ew ew ew ew ew ewwww," Disgust exclaimed at a high pitch, shaking "Heartless guts" out of her hair. "Ugh, it'll take me for-EV-er to get all this out!" she said forlorn, cautiously examining her dusty dress.

Sora stepped forward and knelt down to her level. He produced the first of the five discs stowed away in his pocket. "Here, Anger said this will take you back to Headquarters where it's safe."

Disgust groaned. "You're telling me I have to be alone with Anger? Yuck, he's so bad-tempered and frustrating, I'm not going back there."

"Well...the King and I are off to find the others, so if you'd rather come along and help us fight lots of Heartless..." Sora replied with a grin.

Disgust shot him a glare and snatched up the button. "Fine. Would you just hurry up? I can't stand having to be stuck with one of the others for too long. One's too happy, one's too gloomy, one's too paranoid, I need a balance." At last, Disgust pressed the button and warped back to Headquarters in a strange pinch of light.


	4. The Imaginary Friend

**The Imaginary Friend**

* * *

Once Sora and Mickey had returned to the Keyblade Island's entrance, Sora wandered to the edge overlooking the pitch black chasm. A wall of memories flushed against the cliff, but by leaning outward, he managed to glimpse the next closest Island.

"There's the next one: Friendship Island. Looks quite a ways away. Do you think we could creep along this ledge to reach it?" Sora suggested, although the centimeter-wide ledge already told him it was barely an option.

"It oughta be best to go around," Mickey replied, heading towards rightmost branch into the endless maze of shelves.

The boy quickly ran to the King's side to avoid losing him in the walls of colored orbs. The two companions did their best to navigate their way in the general direction of the Island, but it was hard to tell exactly where they were. It was inevitable when they finally reached a dead end. Sora groaned and fell back on his behind.

"Your Majesty, could we stop for a moment?"

"Aw, I suppose so," Mickey said, downhearted.

"How in the world are we gonna navigate through all this?" Sora said to himself. While messing with the straps on his shoes, Sora leaned back, knocking his head into some memories and causing a few to roll off. "Whoops." He scrambled to gather them back together.

As he piled them in his arms, he saw the insides of them hazily recreating their collected memory. One of them was green and depicted an adolescent Riku having to pick up a rotting fish on the beach and throw it to be swept out to sea. Another green one showed Riku meeting the villain Oogie Boogie for the first time, having been introduced by Maleficent. The third, a bright yellow one, showed a now older Riku in the form of Ansem standing over a ledge in the Organization's stronghold and watching Sora himself fight his way towards the castle's entrance. The last one, however, was most interesting. The scene played out in a soft lilac color, depicting a very young Riku being beckoned by a tall young man. The person knelt down to Riku's level and spoke to him, but the words were garbled, possibly from the age of the memory. Sora felt like he should remember this too...but came to the conclusion he was too young at the time.

After replacing the memories back on the shelf, an idea struck him. "Hey Mickey, what if you climbed up to the top of one of these walls so we can get back our bearings?" Sora asked. The King leapt to attention.

"That's a great idea! I just hope I don't break any memories in the process. Any one of these could be important to Riku..."

"Don't worry, I'll do my best to catch them!" Sora reassured jokingly. The mouse grabbed the first ledge, pulled himself onto it, and jumped several shelves upward. Several memories wiggled from the disturbance, some of them indeed falling to the ground, but true to his word, Sora managed to catch each one in one way or another. Once the King had made it to the top, he quickly scanned their surroundings. The towering Friendship Island lay to their right. The duo had gone farther inward than they had planned and had to head back towards the chasm's edge. Mickey was about to leap back down to Sora when two things suddenly caught his eye: the first was a black swarm flying out of the temple on Keyblade Island, most likely the Heartless they had defeated off to reform somewhere else. The second was another swarm floating out of a corridor relatively close to them. The King jumped back to the ground, where Sora was struggling to return the memories to their spots.

"Hurray, Sora. I spotted more Heartless nearby!" Mickey said, backtracking to the previous intersection.

"Gah!" Sora finally gave up and let the orbs roll across the floor, hoping someone else will be by to fix it. The two headed back a different way, curving and twisting in the correct direction. At last, they heard sounds of a struggle around a tight corner. Sora and Mickey nodded and summoned their weapons. They turned the corner ready to fight, but immediately faltered at what they saw.

A tall brown-haired man had his own weapon drawn and stood in a finishing stance. His legs were covered with flowing samurai style pants while his torso wore a black skintight shirt with two red straps crossed in an X. Orange and brown segmented armor encased his entire left arm with an ornate crest nestled against his shoulder. The remnants of what Heartless there were before the two had turned the corner lay in a circle of dust at the man's feet. The man stood upright and brushed himself off. With his arm outstretched, Sora was surprised to see him wielding a Keyblade.

"Hey there!" Sora greeted, oblivious to Mickey's utterly shocked expression.

"Hm?" Putting away his Keyblade, the man turned around and Sora recognized him as the figure from the memory orb. His brown hair reached down his neck in the back, yet messy spikes in the middle and bangs that framed his piercing blue eyes and tan face. "Oh, you two sure are a relief. I haven't seen a single Mind Worker or benevolent helper ever since those dark creatures showed up. I was beginning to think I was the only one left. But come to think of it..." He brought his fist up to his chin in thought. "...I haven't seen either of you two around."

"Yeah, we're kinda new here," Sora replied sheepishly, extending his hand. "I'm Sora. This is Mickey."

"I'm Kipson*," the man replied, shaking Sora's hand, "Kip for short." At last, Mickey managed to get out some words.

"Hold on! What do ya mean? You're Terra! What have you been doing in here all this time!" Mickey grabbed Kip's other hand with both of his and shook him. "We've been searching everywhere for ya!"

Kip pulled his hands back and racked his brain. "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're talking about...but I'm not Terra. I'm Kip, Riku's imaginary friend." Mickey suddenly became crestfallen and lowered his head.

"Oh...I see. So you're not..." The King returned to his usual cheeriness. "Sorry for the confusion. I mistook ya for someone else."

"If you're an imaginary friend, what've you been doing in here all this time?" Sora questioned.

"Well, ever since the big guy imagined me for the last time, I've made my way all over. Imagination Land, Musical Island, Subconscious, Dream Productions, I go wherever I please," the man answered, though Sora stopped listening after trying to wrap his head around "Musical Island."

"And where'd you get a Keyblade?" Sora inquired after deciding to tease Riku about his passion for musicals later. Kip summoned the Keyblade back.

"Yeah, I've always had it ever since Riku created me. It's tiring, though, that I'm the only one able to fight those creatures."

Sora placed his hands on his hips heroically. "Lucky for you, now you've got backup," he stated, summoning his own weapon.

Kip grinned. "Thank goodness, it'll be a lot easier with two-make that three of us!" Kip rephrased as Mickey summoned the Star Seeker as well.

"Hey, uh, Kip," Mickey began, "do you have any idea how to get to Friendship Island?"

"Oh, sure. It's through a few twist and turns that way. I'll show you," Kip answered. As the newly formed trio began their trek, Sora noticed something peculiar. All this time, the memories littering the walls appeared to be randomized in color, yet suddenly every single orb on the very bottom shelves were a deep blue shade. After one turn, the string of blue returned to randomized coloring and Sora put it out of his mind.

At last, the three arrived at the arch signifying the entrance to a wild, tropical land. Sora couldn't help but smile as there was absolutely no doubt in his mind that it was meant to mimic the terrain of Destiny Islands. "Welcome to Friendship Island," Kip announced.

* * *

 ***Fun fact:** **Kīpāson is phonetically Japanese for "key person," in case you were wondering**


	5. Fear

**Fear**

* * *

The archway welcoming the heroes to the new Island had the texture of a Paopu tree; Sora couldn't help but brush his palm against the trunk as they passed. Ahead of them sat two worn-down trails, blazing through wild, thick vegetation and heading towards opposite ends of the Island. "So what business do you two have here?" Kip inquired.

Mickey responded, "We have reason to believe there's an Emotion in there we gotta save. Most of 'em were kidnapped from Headquarters and perhaps if we bring 'em all back, they can set Riku back to normal!" Kip closed his eyes in deep thought.

"That's what that must've been. I did a sweep of the Island as soon as those creatures appeared and tried to help evacuate the Mind Workers. There was one area, though, that the creatures were highly protective of. I couldn't get anywhere near and was forced to move on. If they're holding anyone hostage, I'd bet that's where they are being kept."

Sora glanced down each pathway. "So, erm, which way is it?"

"The only thing I can remember is that it was near one of the Paopu Trees...There's one down each path, however," Kip said.

"We oughta split up," Mickey chimed in. "We can cover both Trees that way!"

Kip nodded. "Good idea. I can handle myself, you two should cover one another." Without any further comment, Kip turned on the spot, summoned his weapon, and took off down the first path. Mickey and Sora glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Well, I suppose we have no choice," Sora jokingly stated. The two turned toward the second road and began their hike. Sora made an uncomfortable smirk as he meandered along, feeling homesick among the thick foliage. The gurgle of a freshwater stream could be heard weaving its way through the underbrush to their left. Despite being unable to locate any one source of light like the sun (the sky of the mind world simply seemed to brighten and fade depending on the events outside of the body), the large palm trees and broad leaves provided shade along the route, light zigzagging across the dirt as the jungle swayed with the breeze. Sora knew in his head that there was only a pit surrounding Friendship Island, yet the salty sweet scent of the ocean still filled the air. The boy finally allowed new thoughts to distract him from all the nostalgia.

"Hey, Mickey. About earlier...How come you acted that way when we first came across Kipson?"

Mickey's expression remained impassive. "It's funny...Remember what I was sayin' about Keyblade Island? Kipson looks an awful lot like one of those pals I lost to that land." The trail brought them to the edge of the Island where the dirt road turned to sandy beach and flushed against the cliff overseeing the abyss. Endless trails of sand streamed over the edge, dissolving after a few meters of freefall. The stream they had heard flowed into a nearby stone basin, which flood over and also flowed over the edge alongside the sand. The two continued on, following along the edge.

"His name was Terra," Mickey continued. "Xehanort went and did somethin' dreadful to him. In fact, Master Yen Sid and I have been workin' to find him for a long while now. The both of us just learned, though, that if Riku had an imaginary friend that looked just like 'em, they musta met when Riku was young!" He hung his head. "I'm just a little disappointed we still haven't a clue where to find him..."

Sora walked with both hands interlocked behind his head. "I'm sure you'll find him, Your Majesty. With Donald and Goofy, I've been looking for Riku, for Kairi, even for you for what felt like ages. The people you look for always seem to turn up after-...Huh?"

The duo finally reached a large circular clearing. On its edge sat a wooden shack, once again reminiscent of the actual Destiny Islands, and poking out over the chasm, a miniature island floated a stone's throw away. A makeshift bridge of wooden planks connected the two shores with Sora's favorite misshapen Paopu tree growing outward over the edge.

Another Paopu tree, however, sat in the exact center of the clearing, unlike any either of them had ever seen. Sora would barely be able to get his arms around half of its trunk. It grew twenty meters into the air with several enormous branches twisting and curling outward from its base, star-shaped fruit growing abundantly at their tips. The bottom of its trunk was surrounded in purple flames and unhealthily gray, but farther up, different colors faded into one another, amalgamating across its surface. Growing closer to it, Sora let out an audible sound of awe as he realized what was inside. He placed his palm against its trunk, stroking a discolored, imprinted, animated image of Kairi. Closer examination showed that just like the memory orbs he'd witnessed, this tree had several emoted memories of Kairi interspersed throughout the tree's surface.

Mickey spoke up from behind him. "This musta been one of the Paopu trees Terr...I mean, Kip, was tellin' us about. But...It looks like it's bein' poisoned!"

Sora had to pull himself away from the allure of the tree. "Alright, so what do you think-"

No sooner had Sora spoken than the door to the wooden shack flung open, a flood of darkness pouring out and gathering into five new Neoshadows. "Fine," Sora grumbled, furrowing his brow, "we'll deal with you guys first." The duo summoned their weapons.

As the first swiped furiously at the mouse, Mickey parried each one of its swings, deflecting its momentum to the sides. He quickly rolled between its legs and spun his weapon in a wide arc, severing the Heartless through its torso. Taking notice of Sora's unfair three-on-one, the King shot out a Blizzard spell to freeze one in order to give Sora some breathing room. As Mickey went in to demolish the frozen adversary, Sora was now occupied with deflecting two who, unfortunately, managed to alternate their attacks in sync. In a daring move, the boy had the idea to leap over the first, grab it by the elongated antennae with his free hand, and swing it around him, clubbing the second Neoshadow with its own ally. He let go and sent it sprawling to the ground, dazed, giving Sora the opportunity to blast them both with Fire spells. The ashes erupting from them settled against the sand, but by the way they vibrated, they probably wouldn't stay dormant for long. Mickey had shattered the frozen Neoshadow leaving one left. It reared itself back, preparing to strike, when its head swiveled to look behind it. The Heartless stared back at the two Keybladers for a long moment before crouching low, disappearing into a two-dimensional shadow, and heading into the jungle.

"Well, that was odd," Sora pointed out. He looked over his shoulder back at the threatening purple flames licking at the trunk of Kairi's Paopu tree. "So what do we do about that?" He walked up to it and held out the tip of his Keyblade, hoping to repel the darkness with a beam of light, but none shot out from his weapon. "The Keyblade's not reacting to it...I don't think this is ordinary darkness."

"Hmmm...Hang on, Sora," Mickey said, turning towards Sora, "I just had a thought. There aren't any captive Emotions here, so they've gotta be at the second Paopu tree. And if T-Kip is there, I'd bet that Heartless was headin' there for backup." The King turned back towards the jungle. "We gotta catch up to it! Come on!"

"But, the tree..."

"I'm sure we can figure something out with Kip's help, but first, we gotta get to him!"

Sora nodded and chased after Mickey. After forging their path simply in one direction, Mickey managed to catch sight of the traveling shadow on the ground. The King ducked and leapt and made his way through the foliage while Sora traveled closely behind, stumbling and having to crash through everything in his path. At long last, they reached the second clearing where, just as Mickey had predicted, Kip stood wearily, surrounded by another five Heartless. The clearing perfectly matched the one they had just arrived from albeit reversed as in a mirror. This Paopu tree also suffered from the threat of dark flames and monochrome filling its branches. Sora could already tell from this distance, however, exactly whose face he'd see in its trunk.

The King immediately headed to Kip's side in order to aid him from the now six imposing Neoshadows. Sora was running towards them, too, when he spotted something that wasn't present in the first clearing. Across the bridge, hanging from the outward growing paopu tree, was another black cage. He took a quick glance at Kip and Mickey, who weren't desperately in need of his assistance at the moment, before sprinting over to the miniature floating island. With a closer inspection, the cage was again made from the same particles used in the creation of the Heartless. It swayed heavily, dangling from a very thin strand attached to the tree. The strand also appeared to run along the trunk of the tree, across the bridge, and into the shore of the main Island. Every so often, the strand of darkness would oscillate in thickness and travel down the line as if sucking energy through it. Sora could hear very panicked, quick muttering as he peered over the edge and leaned toward the cage.

Inside stood a very skinny being, taller than either of the Emotions before him, with lavender skin and large bulging eyes at the base of his long, thin nose. Thick, black eyebrows hung disconnected to the rest of his body and a single lengthy hair curled out from the top of his head. A houndstooth sweater vest was worn over his long-sleeved button up shirt, a magenta bow tie tied snug around his collar. The majority of his height was based in his lean torso, for his legs were stubby and covered with short navy pants and shoes. Unaware of Sora's presence, the Emotion continued to alternate between quickly pacing, nervously twitching his hands, and holding himself in a tightly curled ball, all while constantly muttering to himself. Sora didn't know how engage him; it seemed like the slightest noise might send him into a erratic fit.

"Psst," Sora started. The reaction was just as had imagined.

The man leapt into the air in shock, knocking his head into the cage's ceiling, screamed, and frantically rushed around the cage floor, causing it to swing even faster and more precariously. He flattened himself against the bars opposite of Sora, looking like his heart was about to beat out of his chest. Staring into his widened eyes, Sora felt a twinge of dread deep down in his chest.

"Please! Don't hurt me! I'll do anything you want! I surrender!" he said in a panicked, fast-paced voice.

"Hey, calm down! I'm here to get you out of here," Sora responded as tenderly as he could. Just as quickly, the man flung himself against the bars closest to Sora, his eyes practically bulging through the gaps.

"You will? Oh, thank goodness! I thought I'd never get out of here! I definitely would've fought my own way out of here, but..." He glanced down into the chasm beneath his very feet, his voice getting higher with each word, "...they figured out my fear of heights." He swayed back and forth from the sight, nearly fainting and landing on his bottom. "Please hurry, the longer I'm in here, the more tiresome I appear to be, too."

"On it...I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say, Fear?" It took all of Fear's will to simply nod his head before lying on the ground and muttering to himself again.

Sora raced back over the bridge where Mickey and Kip had taken care of all the Heartless, Neoshadow remnants scattered among the sand. "You were right, Kip," Sora began. "They trapped Fear in a cage over there and are dangling him over that bottomless pit. Poor guy."

"Well, what are we waitin' for?" Mickey chimed in. "Let's figure out how to free 'em!" The King and Kip headed off towards Fear's cage while Sora hung back, examining the second great tree. Just as he suspected, his own reflection, varying in age as it went higher up, smiled back at him from all over the tree's surface. He took notice that this tree was much taller than Kairi's was, probably since the roots of his friendship took hold much longer before Kairi's had.

Sudden rumbling of the ground beneath Sora caused him to stumble back. The entirety of Friendship Island shook so much that the makeshift bridge snapped away, every plank collapsing and spilling into the chasm, forcing Mickey and Kip to stay on their side. "Sora!" Mickey cried out. "Behind you!"

The swarm of agitated Heartless particles swirled into the air, picking up lots of sand with it. Rather than combining into a single entity, the particles dove into the purple flames surrounding the center Paopu tree and spat out one Neoshadow's worth. This time, however, the particles took a much more menacing silhouette. Before long, Sora was staring back at a shadowed version of Riku-Ansem, the deadly combination of forces Sora was forced to confront in Hollow Bastion many years ago. Memories flashed through his mind: Riku boasting about his worth and taking the Keyblade from him, Riku first transformation into the organic, purple and black suit that stood before him, this figure nearly taking his heart as it cried out, "Lead me into everlasting darkness!" All of this immediately caused his first instinct to be a flight response, but Sora knew he had to stand against it, and willed his heart to fight.

Both figures rushed the other, locking blades in a standoff. Riku-Ansem's superior strength forced Sora to stagger before knocking him in the torso. Sora fell on his back, but quickly rolled backwards onto his feet as the Heartless stabbed into the ground, narrowly avoiding his head. With its weapon momentarily stuck in the ground, the boy kicked him back and quickly drew several strikes across its body before plunging his Keyblade into its chest. The moment the enemy dissolved, two more spews of darkness leapt from the tree, creating two more shadowy soldiers. They both lunged at Sora, but determined not to be struck again, hopped up and kicked off of their incoming blades. He used a quick Stop spell and threw out multiple Strike Raids in succession. Once the spell had worn off, each attack affected them all at once, and one well-placed fireball sent them both scattering. Once again, as soon as these clones had been finished, the remaining three Neoshadows shot out, forming the last three Riku opponents. Sora flashed a smirk as he picked back up into the rhythm of battling and gathered them together with a Magnet, summoning a vortex to pull them all in. Once in the same place, he gathered his energy together and rushed them each with blinding speed in a Sonic Blade. When closest to two of them, Sora spun on the spot, slicing through them like butter. For the final one, he sent a blast of frost out to freeze it. The spell had barely hit when the clone immediately burst into shards of ice.

Sora walked over and knelt next to the shards. He picked one up and noticed the particles inside shook and rattled violently, yet couldn't seem to escape. A scream brought him back from his observations. "GYAAAAAAAUUUUUGGHHHHHHHH!" The destruction of the Riku-Ansems caused the strand of darkness to dissolve and Fear was left clutching to the farthest branch of his Paopu tree for dear life.

"Fear! Grab hold!" Kip shouted, stretching out his Keyblade. The Emotion stared at it, covered his eyes, and grabbed the end with the other hand. With a flick, Fear was swung up into the air and fell onto the opposite shore. His eyes still covered, he cautiously felt the sand beneath him, and fell backwards in well-deserved relaxation. Mickey and Kip soon joined them as they watched the purple flames surrounding the tree flicker away, and color returned to the base.

"I understand," Sora stated. "That cage must've been sucking up caused by Fear's...fear, and used it to try to poison these trees."

"That's right," Kip added. "These two trees are very special. Their roots spread all over the Island, holding everything together. If they had been harmed, all of Friendship Island might've plunged into the Memory Dump."

"The Memory Dump?"

"This enormous chasm beneath us. When memories become unimportant and fade, they're sent into the Dump where they're allowed to disappear entirely."

Sora turned to the purple man. "So, Fear, Anger and Disgust are waiting for you back at Headquarters. We expect that if all of you are together again, Riku will be back to normal. Sorry you had to be so frightened for so long."

Fear gave a half-hearted thumbs up and stood himself up, brushing off sand. "Nah," he replied, suddenly nonchalantly. "I wasn't really all that scared. I was just, erm...luring those creatures into a false sense of security! Yeah, waiting for the perfect opportunity to escape! I certainly appreciate the help, though."

"Riiiiiight," Sora said, choosing to humor him, and taking out the second of the discs. "Here. Anger says this'll bring you back to-"

He was immediately interrupted as Fear hastily grabbed the device, jabbed the button repeatedly, and uttered a frantic "Gee, thanks" before quickly disappearing in another strange zap of light.


	6. Sadness

_**Sadness**_

* * *

The three heroes returned to the entrance of Friendship Island, pondering their next move. Both Sora and the King scratched their heads in confusion.

"Well?" Kip began. "Where are we headed to next?" Sora answered first.

"We're...not really sure. We were only informed about Keyblade and Friendship Island. Unless we have to investigate every single nook and cranny of every Island AND these memory shelves, the trail stops here."

"Maybe that means," Mickey started, "we oughta regroup with the Emotions back in Headquarters. Perhaps Disgust or Fear know something that can help us."

Kip nodded. "While you two see if the others have any information, I'll try to do a quick sweep of the other Islands, see if there's anything else out of the ordinary." Before either of them could respond, he spun on his heel and started sprinting towards the previous Island.

"He sure seems mighty anxious to help out," Mickey observed as Sora retrieved one of the three remaining discs from his pocket. He held out his hand for Mickey to grab.

"We better hurray on up. Maybe they've even gotten some things straightened out," he stated as he pressed the button and teleported back to Headquarters in a pinch of light. He was very wrong.

Opened tomes and pages were scattered all over the hub, and chairs toppled over on their sides. Several scarlet memory orbs had fallen out of the shelves and rolled all over the floor. Disgust was leaning against the wall as Anger furiously chased after Fear across both levels, flames exploding from his head. Three separate voices loudly filled the air, each trying to demand attention and ultimately culminating into white noise.

"IF YOU JUST CALM DOWN, WE CAN SORT OUT A REASONABLE UNDERSTANDING! YOU KNOW HOW BAD IT IS FOR YOU TO-"

"YOU THINK YOU COULD DO ANY BETTER! I'LL RIP YA TO PIECES! IF YOU WEREN'T SO PATHETIC, MAYBE YOU WOULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN YOURSELF KIDNAPPED! HOW-"

"WOULD YOU TWO SHUT UP FOR ONCE? YOU'RE ALWAYS GETTING ON EACH OTHER'S NERVES AND IT MAKES ME SICK! LOOK AT WHAT A MESS YOU'RE-"

"WELL, IF SOMEONE WOULD JUST LISTEN INSTEAD OF GETTING EXPLOSIVE OVER EVERYTHING, MAYBE WE'D GET SOMETHING DONE! AH! HE'S GOT MY LEG!"

"EXPLOSIVE? YOU WANNA SEE EXPLOSIVE? YOU LITTLE PUNK! I'M ALWAYS HAVIN' TO LOOK AFTER YOUR SORRY A-"

"I TOLD YOU GUYS IT WAS A BAD IDEA, ALL OF US COOPED UP IN HERE! IF YOU'D ALL JUST LISTENED TO ME AND KEPT OUT OF EACH OTHER'S WAY-"

" _ **HEY!**_ " All three Emotions immediately silenced and stared back at Sora. Anger was trying to pull Fear off of the chandelier by his legs, but everyone stood frozen at the sudden intrusion. "What's wrong with you all! Aren't you supposed to be trying to help Riku?"

"Look, kid," Disgust began. "No matter how hard we try, which isn't very hard," she added, glancing back at Anger and Fear, "the three of us aren't exactly compatible. I tried to warn you, but you brought this on yourselves," she said flipping her hair.

"But you're all emotions! Don't you guys care about helping and protecting Ri...ku?" Sora stopped, noticing something else new about the Headquarters. What was previously a blank screen now displayed stunningly high quality footage of Destiny Islands. The footage rocked up and down as it dashed across the beach, as if from...a first-person perspective. The realization dawned on Sora. "Oh, no...Riku's awake!" Panicking, he ran up to the console, the darkness at the base still creeping upwards, and asked, "Is there anything you guys can do to stop him? We can't let him hurt anyone else while there's still darkness in his mind!"

Still clinging to the chandelier, Fear cleared his throat. "Ahem, well, as a matter of fact, there might be one thing." The others seemed to know what he meant as he was answered with mixes of groans and "oh, no"s. The Emotion fell back to the floor and pushed a button on the floor. A cylinder rose up from the center of the floor, several differently colored memory orbs filling its inside slots. "In a nutshell, these memories power Riku's personality. If we unhook the memories, his Islands of Personality will fall apart, which includes..."

"Keyblade Island," Mickey finished. "If that Island disappears...does that mean his skill with the Keyblade disappears too?"

"That's correct."

Sora and Mickey huddled together. "I don't know about this. I don't want to hurt Riku or any of his personalities in any way..." Sora said.

Mickey turned back to Fear. "Would...taking away Keyblade Island have any long-term effects?"

"Not really. Once we need to, we can just plug the memory back in and reactivate the Island. He may be rusty at first, but he'll get the hang of it again in no time."

"Well, if it won't hurt Riku too much, I say we gotta give it a shot," Mickey replied to Sora.

Sora still felt uneasy, but reluctantly nodded in agreement. He knelt down to stare at the rest of the many memories sitting inside the cylinder. Something peculiar caught his eye. Once again, they all seemed to be randomized in color, yet three in a row were blue, the only blue orbs in the cylinder in fact. "Hey, Fear. How come you guys seem to bundle up the blue memories together?"

Fear followed Sora's eyes to where he was looking. "Oh, don't mind that. You can thank Sadness for it. Every time she touches a memory orb, it turns sad, er, blue. We haven't really found a way to revert them back to their original emotion, but they don't really do any harm. She is one of us, after all. We can't keep her from doing anything. Believe me, we've tried..."

Sora stopped listening as Fear continued to ramble. A memory inside himself stirred and he shot up, causing Fear to leap in fright. "Hang on! When Sadness touches a memory, she turns it blue?"

"That's what he just sa-aid," Disgust chimed in with a singsong tone.

"Mickey, while we were following Kip through the memory shelves, I spotted a trail of blue orbs. I'd bet if we followed it, we'd be led right to her!"

Mickey had a sudden thought, too. "Wait a second, Kip! He's out on Keyblade Island lookin' for folks! We've gotta get him outta there before they deactivate it!"

Sora stated the same conclusion they had both come to. "We have to split up."

"Right. I'll go find Kip, you see if you can find that trail again." The King turned to Fear as Anger pulled a lever, reopening the tube they'd gone down the first time. "Could ya give me a few minutes before ya deactivate all the Islands?" Once Fear had frantically nodded his head, the King dove into the tube before the hatch closed.

"Alright," Sora said, turning to Anger. "Send me to Friendship Island." The red cubic man sneered and yanked on a different lever, opening up a second hatch.

"Oh," Sora began, just before leaping inside, "and you guys need to sit quietly until we can get everyone back, okay?" He was met by stubborn agreements before hopping into the tube. Once again, the clear tube gave Sora major vertigo as he stared down into the Memory Dump. What could it be like down there? Forced to wait until you just faded away entirely, completely forgotten? He felt a slight sting in his heart, as if it felt familiar. Suddenly, the tube curved off and before long, he was deposited right back at the entrance to Friendship Island.

He dusted himself off and quickly scanned the shelves. Taking in a deep breath, Sora sprinted towards the first opening into the labyrinth of memories. Left, right, left, forward, right, and all around he turned, trying to detect any sign of a blue string of orbs. Right, left, left, back, right, forward, and there it was! Sora knelt down to the bottom row of pure memories. As far as they ran to the left, the streak remained blue until the shelf ended. The streak then continued down a path to the left. Sora nodded and chased it down.

Deeper and deeper into the maze he went. At times, he even had to cross back over a previous path. Sora knew for a fact without the trail, there was no way he'd be able to find his way out. At last, the trail of blue ended at a large pile of blue orbs. Past it, the bottom row turned randomized once again. Sora sighed. "Great, where am I supposed to go from here?" He absentmindedly kicked at the pile of orbs, receiving a low groan and an "ow" in response. Sora glanced down at the pile. "Huh?"

He rolled away the topmost orbs to reveal a shimmering head of cobalt hair. From beneath the rest of the orbs, a glum voice muttered, "Just take me already. I surrender." After clearing away the rest of the orbs, Sora finally discovered Sadness. She was laying on her stomach, thick arms at her sides. Her hair flowed and shimmered like a wave cascading over her face and shoulders. She was chubbier than the other Emotions and just about Disgust's height. A warm, wool, white turtleneck sweater wrapped around her torso and navy pants around her short, stubby legs. The most prominent feature about her was her large, round, indigo glasses (despite seemingly having no lenses). As she glanced up at Sora with her deep sapphire eyes, he felt ready to obsess over the weight of life's problems. "Go ahead," she muttered, defeated, "it was only a matter of time."

"Oh, I'm not here to take you away. I'm Sora," he said with a smile, offering his hand to help her up.

Sadness ignored his hand, choosing to stay on the ground. "Oh, that's good. I thought you were one of those scary creatures."

Sora sat crisscross to better get on her level. "What're you doing out here? How did you get away?" Sadness bit her lip in worry before sitting up and preparing to cry.

"I-It's a long story...and it's all...my...fauuuuuuuuuult!" At the last word, she burst into tears and tried to cover her face in her sweater.

"Hey, hey, um...please calm down. It's alright. Please..." Sora had no idea what to do, uncomfortably looking around for an answer on how to help. Finally, he slid next to her and awkwardly tried to hug her. It seemed to work, because Sadness brushed her eyes and stopped her mourning.

"I'm sorry to be like this...but it's true. I'm the reason...Riku isn't like himself anymore."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

Sadness gave one last sniff before starting, "The other Emotions don't let me have a lot of memories for my own. But one day, when Riku gave in to the darkness that Malif...Mafeli...M-Melifinicenent gave him, none of the other Emotions wanted to be in control, so I took the chance to be at the console. But as soon as the memory showed up, Joy immediately sent it down the chute into Long-Term Memory, this place. Just a few days ago, I found it again and tried to bring it back with me. I couldn't help myself, it's one of my favorite memories, one of Riku's saddest moments...But Joy tried to take it back and throw it in the Memory Dump. Once she grabbed it, though, it suddenly turned bright yellow and rattled and shook until those dark creatures poured out of it. They grabbed Joy and the memory first, then me and Disgust and Fear...b-but I was able to wiggle my way out of their clutches. I fell down in here and...just wandered around. I figured it'd be helpful if I didn't screw anything else up, so I just walked until I couldn't walk anymore. I covered myself in memories in case any more monsters came by and...well, now you're here."

"I'm so sorry Joy took something special to you...but it _is_ the reason all this happened. We're gonna have to destroy it or contain it or...something."

"Yeah...I guess you're right."

Sora coughed, attempting to inconspicuously change the subject. "Do you know where it is they took Joy?"

"Yeah, sure. They took her and the memory down to the Subconscious."

"Alright...So, I've got this device I have to give you-"

Sora was still digging around in his pocket when the Neoshadow jumped them. Sneaking up from behind, it leapt out of the ground and latched onto Sora's head as it tackled him. Sora shook himself in an attempt to get the monster off of him. Sadness stood herself up and stood by as Sora swung around. "Hang on, Sora...I can help!" She hesitantly reached out to try and intervene, but the Neoshadow's foot slammed into her head and sent her sprawling. From where Sadness had made contact, frost began to creep up the Neoshadow's leg. At last, Sora flung it away and stood in front of the Emotion, weapon drawn.

"Stay behind me, Sadness. It's too dangerous." With its foot now encased in ice and weighing it down, a quick flurry of swipes from the Keyblade obliterated the Heartless. Sora sighed. "Alright, Sadness. Could you direct me towards the Subconscious?" But when he turned to her, Sadness was once again on the verge of tears.

"Please. I...I know I can help...I want to believe I can help. I want to make up for what I did. I'm sorry, I just want to help..."

"Sadness," Sora started, kneeling down, "I can handle the fighting. Right now, Riku needs you most in Headquarters. He needs you safe. That's the best you can do for him right now, okay?" Sadness used her sleeve to brush her eyes.

"There's a staircase near the edge of the Memory Dump between Keyblade and Friendship Island. It leads down into the Subconscious."

Sora was now able to pull out the fourth of the discs uninterrupted and handed it to her. "Thanks. Now...go where you're needed." Sadness took it in her hands, stared down at the button, and watched as Sora sprinted back down the trail of blue memory orbs she had absentmindedly created.


End file.
